


Hollow Wandering

by pyromanicofthesea



Series: AbsoluteControlShipping Week 2020 [3]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Absolutecontrolshipping Week, Grief/Mourning, Introspection, M/M, Reflection, Sad, cyrus dies but off-screen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:14:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25078213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyromanicofthesea/pseuds/pyromanicofthesea
Summary: Day Six: GoodbyeGiovanni reflects on his memories of Cyrus.
Relationships: Akagi | Cyrus/Sakaki | Giovanni
Series: AbsoluteControlShipping Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1811884
Kudos: 8





	Hollow Wandering

There are a thousand ways to say goodbye, and neither men were ready to try any of them. Goodbye was such a permanent way of going about things, but that was just how it was sometimes. There was only one certainty in life, only once permanence, and that was goodbye. That was a final farewell.

Giovanni was never all that good with goodbyes. He had faced them before, but he was normally so detached from the other person that it didn’t weigh on him the same way. It wasn’t as haunting. This one was. This one refused to let him let go.

Giovanni knelt down, and placed flowers in front of the headstone. He lit two sticks of sweet incense in a holder, and set them beside the flowers. It had been five years since it all, and yet he still traveled all this way every year. Five years felt so long, and yet, it felt like no time at all. Giovanni thought on it for a moment, but his thoughts quickly redirected towards the memories he had of him.

Memories of waking up to a man with messy, blue hair, snoring lightly on his half of the bed. Memories of sleeping in late just to stay in the man’s arms a bit longer, or to hold the man a bit longer, not wanting to leave or let go. Memories of getting caught in the rain, or the wind, or the snow even before the dead of winter. Memories of walking the streets of Kanto like he owned the place, his man by his side or on his arm or acting all cool with his hands in his pockets though the man couldn’t hide his smile even if he tried. Memories of cooking together, and battling just to stay fit or even just to pass the time. Memories of soft kisses and heated kisses and surprise kisses and goodnight kisses. Memories of dates and dinners and falling in love all over again every time he heard the man laugh.

There was no doubt about it. Giovanni missed Cyrus more than anything else, and he was still learning to live with that feeling of something-is-missing. He was still being reminded, every time something happened and it made him think of Cyrus, that the man was gone, and would not be coming back.

He ached deep in his chest. Some days, he did not leave bed until well into the afternoon. Other days, the feeling was more like a small fly in the room. Regardless of the day, he just missed knowing that somewhere out there, Cyrus was out there too.

One such memory would plague him more often than not. It had been during one of his visits to Sinnoh, he and Cyrus were out in the dark of night, just outside of Celestic Town on Route 210. They had spread out a blanket in the open grass near the cliff and the waterfalls, and laid there side by side, watching the stars. Cyrus would point out constellations, celestial bodies, satellites, and Giovanni listened, feeling absolutely content in that moment. He had one hand over Cyrus’s, and when he looked over just to look at Cyrus while he talked about new information discovered about one of the smaller stars up there, Giovanni was overwhelmed by how much Cyrus meant to him. He had sat up, which caught Cyrus’s attention, but before Cyrus had the chance to say a word, Giovanni had taken his hand and kissed the back of it. The gesture on its own wasn’t unusual, but it became such when Giovanni had then hugged Cyrus. It hadn’t been a long hug, barely three seconds at all, but it conveyed so much that when Giovanni had let go, Cyrus sat up and pecked a kiss on his cheek.

At first, the memory reopened the wound in Giovanni’s chest over and over. Over time, though, he began to find comfort in remembering Cyrus so at peace. Getting back to his travels felt easier after a while, and often he would think about Cyrus and write to him, knowing those were letters he would never send. It was just nice to think that maybe one day he would see Cyrus again.

There were other memories that would come and go. Cyrus was not the sort to often show his affections in the beginning, but his sincerity was almost overwhelming every time. Giovanni would throw on the charm, and in return would be given a small smile, a short huff of a laugh, a shake of a head, and it all did nothing except encourage him. Over time, Giovanni became comfortable, and Cyrus became bolder. It was something Giovanni reflected on often now that he had nothing but time to himself.

He had left the Sinnoh region not long after Cyrus no longer appeared in mirrors to wave good morning or good night to him. He knew, after a few days of not even a hint of a sign, that Cyrus was gone. It broke Giovanni’s heart, and Sinnoh began to hold too many memories for him to stay. So he left, returned to Kanto, and set about planning a proper course of travel for training. The training happened, of course, nearly a whole year after grieving. It began with the islands south of Kanto, until the anniversary of Cyrus’s true disappearance crept up, and Giovanni returned to the gravesite without realizing what he was doing. It became a pattern. Spend time traveling in another region, return on the anniversary of Cyrus’s assumed death, resume traveling in another region. For five years, Giovanni did this, and had no intention of stopping. He did not meet very many people during his travels, but he did not intend to. He intended to become stronger, to resurrect Team Rocket to its former glory, all in all as a distraction for the missing piece he still felt.

Sometimes it was difficult to keep to a training regimen, especially when the International Police would catch a lead and he had to go back into hiding. It was when he was in hiding that he reflected on his time with Cyrus the most.

“Should I be concerned about what you do when you’re not prowling around my headquarters?” Cyrus asked him one evening, a few years after the disbandment of Team Rocket. What a mess, that all had been. It had left him truly shaken for quite some time.

“I do not prowl around,” Giovanni replied, to which Cyrus gave him a look. “Okay, maybe I do. But it’s of no concern.” Cyrus raised his eyebrows in disbelief, but the emote faded just as quickly. “Truly! I’ve mostly been traveling. Training. I have to become stronger.”

“You don’t _have_ to do anything,” Cyrus said. “If you’re still wanting a total world takeover, though, I do believe I can help with that.”

It was the true start of what would become something far more than cohortship. At the time, Giovanni enthusiastically agreed. Now though, with Cyrus gone, Team Galactic reformed, and Team Rocket gone without a trace, some small, bitter part of Giovanni wished he had never called Cyrus from the airfield that day. He didn’t _really_ wish it, not rationally at least, but he wasn’t always being rational anymore. Of course, that was early on, when the loss of Cyrus ate into his core and threatened to leave him a husk of what he once was.

Giovanni still reflected, even five years after. His reflections were more bittersweet than anything else though. Sometimes it felt like he was finally letting go. Other times, not so much. He did, however, receive word that he was no longer so high up on the wanted list. Something about a man from a far-off region trying to set off a superweapon. Not exactly the most cheerful way to lose the interest of the International Police, but Giovanni would take what he could get. He knew that returning to Kanto would still be unwise, and Johto would likely not be much better. Perhaps then, he would stay in Sinnoh beyond Cyrus’s death anniversary. There was much of the region he had yet to see.

Genuinely though, some part of him hoped this Man With A Superweapon would evade capture, if only so that he could thank him one day for getting the Interpol off his tail. Perhaps Giovanni will look into the man, find a name and a region, maybe even a town of residence, and send him a card. It would certainly not be the first time he pursued a man of interest, though, it was unlikely things would end up like the last time. No, he was certain nothing would end up like the last time. Cyrus had come to mean too much to him to be replaced so easily. Strange how such things could happen.

With a sigh, Giovanni walked on, though his mind was already made up. While Cyrus wasn’t ever thrilled about Sinnoh, it was the place Giovanni associated with him the most. He would return, now that he had the ease of doing so both physically and emotionally, and see the region properly. At least, that was the plan.

**Author's Note:**

> Vaguing Lysandre in a fic? It's more likely than you think.  
> I know this one is much shorter than the others, but it's more of a connecting piece than anything else. I have one more story for this set in the works, though I won't say yet anything about it ;)
> 
> Thank you so very very much for reading! Stay safe out there, everyone!


End file.
